Feb 9
To Joe Carter and his blogpost on the Dow Jones exchange and other economic tidbits. This appeared in the Acton blog.
There is something missing in what people, not just Christians, should know about the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The Dow, and other exchanges, shows that our economy revolves around the shareholder. And when that is the case, all other stakeholders of the economy are relegated to being mere objects of profit for the good pleasure of the shareholders. And when referring to shareholders here, we should note that since in publicly owned companies, each share gets a vote, those with the most shares, those who have the most money to invest, get the most votes and thus are able to control the direction and decisions made by any publicly owned company. Those with the least power in such companies are the other stakeholders. The executive board of a given publicly owned company are there to serve the interest of the shareholders with the most say.
We should note something else about publicly owned companies. Only those who have bought stocks that were originally issued by the company have invested their money into the company. Those who bought shares from previous owners gain the political power of those owners but have invested no money into a given publicly owned company. So they are there to garner the profits of the company more so than those who bought shares from the company itself. This can make shareholders the economic equivalent of absentee slumlords.
The de facto purpose of many publicly owned companies is to maximize the ROI for the shareholders--which is part of maximizing profits for a given publicly owned company. Maximizing the ROI for investors and maximizing profits for the company presents themselves as a conflict of interest with paying all employees fair pay and in protecting the environment from any environmental footprint that the operation of the company and use of its products causes. In addition, part of the maximizing ROIs and profits causes companies to employ lobbyists whose job is to get the government to favor their own companies over the rest of the population. And part of getting the government to favor their own companies includes the use of both legal and illegal bribes in the form of providing favors for elected officials and giving campaign contributions to ensure elected officials job security.
Now the ability to make above observations doesn't require one to take any classes in economics. One only needs to read and ask economists a few questions. And the ability to draw implications from the above observations only requires one to employ logic. And so it doesn't take an economist to realize that we have an economy that exists to serve the interests of the wealthy while all others are made into disposable objects for profit. And why we tolerate a system where investors, who never have put a dime into a company, have all the say and workers, some of whom have labored for a company for decades, are mere disposable objects for profit who have no say in the company is a mystery for a nation that once was a "Christian nation" whose scriptures that teach that the love of money is strongly associated with evil.
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To Caroline Roberts and her blogpost on how Millennials prefer Socialism. This appeared in the Acton blog.
I would agree that Millennials don't know what socialism is. But what is also true is that they could never learn about socialism from its conservative antagonists. For those conservative antagonists of socialism are content both to be historical opportunists and content to describe socialism as a monolith.
First, what many conservatives called socialism was Bolshevism. And the leader of the revolution that made Bolshevism into Communism was not only criticized by some of his socialist contemporaries for introducing a bourgeoisie dictatorship, Lenin mocked those to the left of him as being 'infantile'--a description that seems some what synonymous with some conservative criticisms of socialism. This, as well as Mao's and Castro's revolutions are what conservative antagonists of Socialism want people to think about when they think about Socialism. Of course, conservative antagonists of Socialism forget that, in Nicaragua, a leftist revolution turned to a democracy rather than continued a dictatorship. In addition, conservative antagonists forget that many of the leftist revolutions were executed in order to overthrow Capitalist supported dictatorships. Also, conservative antagonists forget that some Socialist leaders were democratically elected by their people. Thus a very selective use of history is opportunistically employed by many conservative antagonists of Socialism.
Second, if many socialists dissented from what Lenin and those who followed him did, how is it that socialism could rightfully viewed as a monolith? And yet, conservative are more than happy to do that. In addition, what helped Bolshevism obtain the power it wanted was due to a walkout of a Socialist Russian Congress by the Mensheviks. In addition, not only did Lenin purge his own Socialist party, he called those on the left who opposed him 'infantile.' Socialist detractors denounced Lenin for the structure of his government and how he ruled. So how is that conservative antagonists of Socialism can honestly portray Socialism as a monolith?
Let's be clear, the number 1 priority of Socialism from the Marxist tradition is the redistribution of power, not wealth, into the hands of workers. Why? It is because the structure of Capitalism relegates workers to that of being disposable objects. So Marx saw the empowering of workers, what he called the 'proletariat dictatorship,' as the way to change society from being controlled by the bourgeoisie to that of his utopian classless society.
Now, one doesn't have to agree with Marx on his belief in a utopian dreams or in the proletariat dictatorship to believe in the empowering of workers. For the closest thing we have to Marxism in the world today can be found in Germany, which has a very successful economy, that has laws called codetermination laws. In those laws, publicly owned companies of varying sizes are required to have certain percentages of workers on a company's executive board. This partial transfer of power from owners/employers to workers partially follows Marx's Socialism. And thus Germany's use of codetermination starts to approach the Marxist socialism that is so demeaned conservative antagonists.
As mentioned before, the monolithic view of socialism is based on some of the socialist revolutions that overthrew dictators who were supported by Capitalists. Those Capitalists that supported the dictators came from both within nations that went through a revolution as well as capitalists from nations like the the US. Emerging socialist leaders who were democratically elected to office often found themselves targeted by the US for regime changes that saw the replacement of democratic processes with dictators who showed favor to American business interests. Such examples can be found in Iran ('53), Guatemala ('54), Brazil (around '64), Greece ('67), and Chile ('73). An example where a leftist revolution that resulted in a democracy but was viciously attacked by terrorists sponsored by the US can be seen in Nicaragua during the 1980s. There are other examples capitalist engineered coups. But none of Capitalism's attacks on democracies and support for dictators ever finds their way into the comments made by conservative antagonists of socialism. I wonder why.
With growing wealth disparity both within nations and between nations along with an economic caste system maintained by the use of comparative advantage, we see that today's form of Capitalism, which is called neoliberalism, gives more and more power to those with wealth even over their own nations' governments as well as over the governments of other nations. This form of Capitalism is not the same form of Capitalism that followed WW II. And yet, just as conservative antagonists of Socialism refer to Socialism as a monolith, they do the same to Capitalism. Thus, the successes of a previous form of Capitalism, a Keynesian form called the Bretton-Woods system in which egalitarian economic growth was seen in all of America's economic classes even though it was under a state-capitalism model, are attributed to today's neoliberalism. And such dishonesty can fly under the radar for most people because they are preoccupied with other matters and rely on the stereotypes of economic systems provided by conservative defenders of not just Capitalism, but of neoliberalism.
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Feb 10
To Joseph Mussomeli and his article protesting victimology and what he sees as other inappropriate reactions to past oppressions. This appeared in the Imaginative Conservative blog.
What is apparent in the above article is that once oppression stops, the writer of the article expects the victim to think and act as if the oppression never existed. And it isn't just Mussomeli who expects that; it is those groups who oppressed others who believe that as well. Such an expectation is the wishful thinking of all oppressors and their allies everywhere. For such an expectation basically says that though the oppression suffered was wrong, it was really not so bad that there should be long-term aftereffects. Such an expectation is at least a denial of the full guilt that should be felt by the oppressors.
After all, we are talking about centuries of severe marginalization for Blacks and the LGBT community in this nation--of course, let's not forget Native Americans and other minorities. And that marginalization, though significantly reduced, is still in effect today. We still have significant racism in our nation. And though same-sex marriage is now legal, the LGBT community is far from experiencing an equal status in society in many places in our nation.
If we were to look at the marginalization and oppression of different groups as we look at severe traumas, we wouldn't be surprised at what some would call overreactions and/or overcompensation for past wrongs. So why should we be upset by what conservatives call 'victimology'? This is an important question because the term itself is just meant to demean the degree of past suffering certain groups experienced for very long periods of time. We shouldn't be upset at 'victimology' and other reactions to past and current oppression by those who have been oppressed and marginalized because they are exhibiting normal human reactions to past, and unfortunately still current, horrific conditions.
The above article shows more concern for the sensitive feelings of groups guilty of being oppressors than it is concerned for the reactions of victims that have gone too far. And considering that those groups of oppressors consist mainly of white, male Christians, what we see is that an appropriate repentance has never been experienced by my fellow white, male Christians. Rather, what we is a tribal response that only guarantees future conflicts and thus crushes all hopes for any kind of real resolution. And worst of all, what we see is a case being made by these white, male Christians that says: "Even though we made mistakes, we still deserve our place of supremacy over all others.."
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